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Are you weaning off of Cymbalta?

I have been on Cymbalta for several years and tried to get off of it last year.  It was impossible, as those of you who have tried, know. I am at 20mg, which is the lowest dosage they make.  Which is another thing that i don't understand besides the fact, we are not informed how difficult it is to come off of.  I know all of the side effects and what needs to be done.  I would like to hear from those that may be down to the final dosage and those that have completed.  I understand that each of us differs on length of weaning, but I would like to hear how long it took, how many weeks before going down another dose?  My psychologist isn't very helpful.  My primary care Dr. doesn't have a clue. I am also looking to hear from others and be able to possibly help others.  
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I'm a little confused -- psychologists know nothing about the intricacies of meds, they don't prescribe them.  Psychiatrists are as  close to an expert as you can get on this stuff, not general docs, as psychiatrists have the most time training in prescribing meds for mental health.  But you can do this research on your own, and I encourage you to do so.  Very few doctors of any kind want to know just how toxic medication is for us.  It's really bad for business if they take the time to learn this, and it's also a bit bad for their patients who really do need medication, as you don't want to make it sound too awful when it's really the best thing for some, though not for most.  But once you're on a med a doctor should, but doesn't, know how to treat you as an individual and do a taper off that suits you, not some mythical general person.  You're the only you and you're going to react the way your brain is going to react.  For some, the brain just can't adapt well to trying to go back to working normally again.  For some it's really easy, for some it's hard, and for some it's near impossible.  There are books on the issue written by out of the mainstream psychiatrists who aren't entirely propagandized by the pharmaceutical industry, and there are also a lot of research articles out there written by independent doctors on this subject.  Basically, though, what you do is taper off as slowly as you need to.  I've never taken Cymbalta but any drug that affects brain neurotransmitters can be very hard to stop taking, so the problems aren't unique to that med.  While the SNRI category is notorious for really bad withdrawals, the worst being Effexor, Paxil, an SSRI, is also well known for this problem, and again, someone has had a terrible problem with all of them.  By now most of them have a liquid version that allows you to titrate down very very slowly.  If not, when you get down to the lowest dose and are still having problems, break the pills in half.  Then in quarters, if you can.  The trick for most people is to eventually stop, go through a couple of bad weeks, and then you're over it.  But for some who get protracted withdrawals and just can't function when they stop, you either have to eventually tough it out and hope if eventually goes away or just resign yourself to staying on the drug.  Just don't do what I did, which is to listen to a quack tell you it's not the drug if it is the drug.  Peace.
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